Could stress cause all these illnesses?

[Savoir Faire]

My husband and I are totally at odds over what is causing my constant sickness. We moved to Arizona almost a year ago. It was a VERY stressful time for us-- layoff with little time to adjust before we moved.

I'm still adjusting to our new life here-- we're homeschooling and right now I often feel as if I'm burning the candle at both ends plus the middle with dragging kids everywhere for homeschool/activities PLUS trying to fit in driving to a preschool and teach a craft class.

I've had multiple colds since we've moved here. In the past six months alone, I have had strep throat TWICE (the second time, before all the symptoms even hit-- I was just worn down-- my WBC was 17.) I had bronchitis before Christmas. Took medicine because it wouldn't go away on its own...only for it to come raging back. This time ended up with an even stronger antibiotic, which seemed to do the trick.

Almost a month later? Guess what? I'm back in bed. I'm really week and I'm just waiting to figure out what this is turning into.

(Also, maybe a bit TMI, but I seem to always about to start my period when I end up sick.)

I feel that my body is very angry right now and that I'm just too worn down. My husband thinks I have allergies...except I don't sneeze/cough/have headaches like I did in Texas (where I was highly allergic!).

Tell me about stress and illness. Are there any alternative therapies or traditional Chinese medicine things I could try?

[tanyalynn]

Stress was the straw that broke this camel's back. Things were borderline beforehand with me, but several years of several long-term stresses pushed me over the edge.

A simple thing to do is a really good multi, do you take anything? If not, I'd say one of the Thorne Basic Nutrients multivits, they're easy to buy online, they have good forms of vitamins and minerals, they don't have common allergens, and they're fairly affordable. The one thing their multis don't have is much zinc, it's some but not a lot, and zinc was one biggie for my son's illnesses. But maybe it's not for you.

I say the multi because stress just sucks up nutrients.

One thing to consider for allergies, even if it's just because you had them before and maybe not currently, is folate and B12. The Thorne multi has real folate, a hefty but reasonable amount, and trying a sublingual B12 is low risk and maybe will help with fatigue; read about the risk of toxicity, I think it's pretty darn low. This talks about allergies and folate a bit...

http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/methyl.php

Can you find an acupuncturist who practices TCM? Even just a few visits could help you get started understanding what's going on, get some dietary ideas, maybe some herbs. Once I got enough of an idea of what was going on with us, TCM-wise, I could do a bit more reading on my own on foods that would likely be helpful.

http://www.mybodywisdom.net/pdf/Nutr...Kidney_Yin.pdf

I found this to be a helpful article, I think it's applicable to a lot of people with chronic stress/worn down types of problems. There are one or two others on the same site that also seemed really good. I think these specific conditions were written about because the stresses we're under in the US, combined with typical diets, often cause these types of problems. But a professional would have suggestions more tailored to you.